Darren Bent surprised by Tottenham star Eric Dier's inclusion in latest England squad

By Tom Procter

Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent has expressed his surprise about Tottenham Hotspur star Eric Dier’s call-up to the latest England squad.

Gareth Southgate today named his 25-man squad for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine.

The big talking points are that Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben White, Conor Coady, James Ward-Prowse, Raheem Sterling and Callum Wilson have all missed out.

Marc Guehi and Ivan Toney are both in. As are Conor Gallagher and James Maddison.

Southgate has again turned to Dier, who will get the chance to add to his 49 Three Lions caps.

There has been a bit of talk today on social media about his inclusion.

Spurs beat Nottingham Forest 3-1 last weekend. But prior to that game the club had some really poor results.

The defeat to Sheffield United in the FA Cup prompted fury, as did the 0-0 draw with AC Milan which resulted in Spurs exiting the Champions League.

There was also a 1-0 defeat to Wolves, although £85,000-a-week ace Dier was an unused substitute.

There were even claims recently that some Spurs staff felt Clement Lenglet should be starting ahead of Dier given his inconsistency.

But many have been talking about the fact Fikayo Tomori has one again been overlooked by Southgate.

Dier and also Harry Maguire are seemingly the players being targeted for ‘taking up his spot’.

Darren Bent surprised by Eric Dier England call-up

This evening, former Spurs striker Bent gave his thoughts about a number of England players following the announcement of the latest squad.

On Dier, he said on talkSPORT: “Yeah bit of a surprise, because Spurs have been inconsistent.

“But I like Eric. I don’t think he’s ever let Gareth down.”

Undoubtedly, Dier’s inclusion in the latest squad by Southgate hasn’t gone down too well with everyone.

Unsurprisingly Arsenal fans are particularly unhappy, with their man White missing out.